by Dave Norris, Heritage Golf Club Superintendant

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Winter is here!

On behalf of the maintenance staff, we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Winter has finally set in at the course but the crew is keeping busy.

Greens are closed! The course is still open for play but the greens have been shut down for winter. Constant freezing and thawing makes it too risky for traffic on our putting greens. Walking on a frozen green won’t do much damage, if any. The worst time to be on a green is when the temps climb and the top inch of the green becomes thawed. It may seem safe but it’s actually dangerous for the health of our plants. The ground remains frozen in the root zone and the shifting on top of the plants may cause them to break and sheer off of the crown, resulting in death. Winter pins have been placed in the approaches and fairways until we reopen greens in the spring.

To protect our greens from winter injury we have applied a preventative Snow Mold fungicide. The same application was also made on all tee boxes and range tees. We make this application prior to the first snow cover. “Pink Snow Mold” is most common on annual bluegrass and bentgrass. This fungus becomes more active with lingering snow cover and can do more damage the longer the cover remains. The fungicides we use are top of the line and we have had great success with them in the past.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce my Assistant Kyle Arnold. Kyle graduated from The Ohio State University with a BS in Agriculture. Immediately after graduating Kyle moved to Florida and worked as a Superintendent at Bonita Bay Golf Resort. After 5 years, he returned to Ohio to be closer to family. Kyle worked the 2016 season here at Heritage as our second assistant. Feel free to say “Hi” when you see him on the course this coming season.